Captain America: Brave New World is only Marvel Studios' third "Rotten" movie in just shy of two decades. There are clearly lessons to be learned from this one, though, and Vulture has just published a bombshell report about alleged issues behind the scenes.
The site, part of the New York Magazine family, has spoken to a "technical crew member" who worked on the movie and has supposedly been part of several MCU projects in recent years.
This insider details a troubled production during reshoots, including a general level of indecisiveness regarding what sort of movie Captain America: Brave New World should be. They reference bad test screenings - which lines up with what we heard several months ago - and an uneasiness surrounding how this story mirrors recent real-life events.
They claim Harrison Ford was difficult to work with (another source close to the production told the site there's "no truth" to that) and suggest everyone involved struggled to get Captain America: Brave New World across the finish line.
Here are some excerpts from their statement:
I worked on the reshoots. I think everyone on the crew knew this is probably not going to be a good film. Some of the action sequences were not believable. We had a lot of frustrations on set. After principal photography was finished, it was like, 'Oh, we’re going to introduce the leader of the Serpent Society.' It was on, then it was off, then it was on again. That’s very expensive to do. My co-workers who spent more time on Brave New World than I did said, 'Yeah, this has been a really rough production.'
When the studio had its test in front of an audience, it didn’t respond. Maybe they don’t want to see anything political in an election year? Maybe they were divided on who they were voting for? General Ross reads as an allusion to Trump. He’s this very powerful general who becomes kind of a fascist and turns into a raging Red Hulk. This is my opinion, but I think Disney was realizing, Hey, we’ve been bleeding for a while. Let’s try not to piss off our core base any more than we have been over the last couple of years. They know you’re going to lose a lot of your audience that way.
Harrison Ford was one of the crankiest performers I ever dealt with. Which was sad. I’m a fan. But he was very much a diva. I don’t know if you remember, but he got in a plane crash. He couldn’t even raise his left arm above his chest. We have to suit up 80-something Harrison Ford in these motion-capture dots. To me, it seemed like he hated it and didn’t want to do it. And when Harrison was done, he was done. Everyone was trying to scramble to make him happy. That made for a very awkward work environment.
Reshoots are a part of making any movie like this with a big budget. But this isn’t Marvel’s first rodeo. Entire sequences we shot won’t make it into the film, and that’s very expensive. I’m not going to say the director was not equipped to handle that production. Basically, dealing with A-list egos was the issue. It was mainly just Harrison Ford. So that was a little disappointing. At the end of the day, it was the most tense Marvel shoot I’ve ever worked on. Everyone kind of felt their buttholes tightening a little bit. It’s like, Ugh.
Vulture did recently publish an article titled "Marvel Is Now a Giant Slop Machine," and while we're not doubting the validity of the site's sources, their writers are seemingly no big fans of superhero fare.
Still, everything detailed above is in line with what we expected and certainly makes sense after watching the movie. Early buzz surrounding Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps is very positive, so Captain America: Brave New World will hopefully be another rare misstep for Marvel Studios rather than any real cause for concern.
"Flawed but functional, Captain America: Brave New World's many problems are largely forgotten any time Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford electrify the screen," we said in our review. "And when Red Hulk shows up, the movie reaches new heights of awesome."
Captain America: Brave New World opens in U.S. theaters on February 14, 2025.